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National Imaginings and Ethnic Tourism in Lhasa, Tibet: Postcolonial Identities amongst Contemporary Tibetans
By:Daisuke Murakami
National Imaginings and Ethnic Tourism in Lhasa


 
Our Price: $50.00
Members Price: $45.00
Author: Daisuke Murakami
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9789937506588
Publication Date: 2011


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Product Code: 16676
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Description
 
This dissertation examines Tibetan ethnic identities in contemporary Lhasa through the lens of an ethnographic approach. Based on intensive fieldwork (2000-2002), it describes and analyses complex links between Tibetan national subjectivities and the capitalist economy endorsed by socialist ideology. The research questions posed address how Lhasa Tibetans negotiate with the imposition of socialist values, while negating and retrieving their ethnic sentiments; what it is to live as an �ethnic Tibetan� as crafted by the state discourse; and how they are (dis)enabled by the prevailing dichotomous value constellations, such as tradition/modernity, Buddhist/communist, backward/civilised, religious/economic, and past/future. In answering these questions, the research focuses on a group of Tibetan youth who acquired secondary education in China in order to become tour guides. They were selected through an official procedure, and expected to contribute to Lhasa�s modernisation process as model tour guides. While elaborating on their active engagement within the tourist industry as �ethnic agents�, the dissertation also delineates the state discourses which propose to redefine and manipulate Tibetan culture and identity. A central aim of the thesis is the examination of the political nature of the tourist industry�s development. Among studies of China�s ethnic minorities this research offers a unique ethnographic contribution to comprehending the socio-political situation in modern Lhasa, rarely investigated due to political sensibilities.

National Imaginings and Ethnic Tourism in Lhasa, Tibet: Postcolonial Identities amongst Contemporary Tibetans, Daisuke Murakami, Vajra Publications, 200 pp, $50.00

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